


A Formal Introduction

by paperjamBipper



Category: We Bare Bears (TV)
Genre: Adoption, Domestic Fluff, Fankids - Freeform, Love, M/M, Originally Posted on Tumblr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-13
Updated: 2019-06-13
Packaged: 2020-05-07 09:19:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,246
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19206442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paperjamBipper/pseuds/paperjamBipper
Summary: Panda wanders into the city to run a few errands, and comes home with a new member of the family. She’s dying to meet Charlie, so Panda figures that introducing the two of them is the least he can do.





	A Formal Introduction

Charlie almost doesn’t even notice Panda coming into the front door, he’s moving that slowly.

Panda’s saying something, but he’s saying it just quiet enough that Charlie can’t make out what he’s saying, so at first he just assumes he’s talking to someone on the phone. But then he giggles, and mentions him directly by name to whoever he’s talking to, and when Charlie looks up from what he was doing there’s no phone in his hand at all.

As a matter of fact, Panda looks like he’s talking to someone who’s _with_ him, because he’s turned towards somewhere outside.

“Uh, sweetie?” Charlie asks, moving to stand and back into the other room. “Is someone with you? Should I-”

Panda turns. “Hmm?” he asks, but then when he sees that Charlie’s backing into the other room he steps forward and takes Charlie by the hand. “Oh no, no, not at all!” he beams. Slowly, like he doesn’t want to frighten whoever he’d just been talking to, Panda guides Charlie back to the center of the living room. “I have a good feeling you’re going to want to sit down for this” Panda says, practically grinning from ear to ear.

It’s the happiest he’s seen Panda look in a long time.

Charlie chuckles nervously. “Oh, well, okay then” he says, and Panda watches him as he sinks to sit down on the floor.

“I promise” Panda says, letting go of Charlie’s hand and making his way back over to the cave’s entrance. “You’re going to be…” he pauses for a beat. “….better than okay with this, actually”

Panda stops just before he gets outside. “Okay,” he says to whoever’s on the other side of the door. “You can go in now”.

“Really?” squeaks a young female voice, and Charlie’s eyes widen. “You mean it? You really mean it?”

“Yep!” Panda says, and gestures inside towards the living room. “It’s all yours”

The young girl squeals, and dashes past Panda and into the cave so quickly that all Charlie can make out of her is a fuzzy blur. Panda follows her in, laughing.

“Hey, hey, slow down!” he says. “I don’t want you to hurt yourself ten seconds after you get here.” He shakes his head. “Talk about a bad first impression”.

“Oopsie, sorry!” she giggles, and comes to a stop before she approaches Panda and wraps a tiny arm around his leg.

She’s the smallest black bear cub Charlie’s ever seen. Her fur is entirely a thick, shiny black, save for her muzzle, which is splashed with light brown fur. There’s a little spot of brown on the side of her nose, and much like Panda’s patches around his eyes, she’s got two tiny brown patches around her own eyes. She’s bouncing up and down on her feet so quickly she’s practically vibrating, clinging onto Panda like she’d go flying if she let go.

And she is,

By far,

The _cutest_ little kid Charlie’s ever seen.

He stands to his feet.

“Woah….” The little cub gasps, gaping up at him in astonishment. She turns her gaze back to Panda, and tugs at his paw to get his attention. “Is that him?” she asks, taking a few steps closer to him.

Panda nods. “That’s Charlie”

“ _That’s_ Charlie?” She abandons her caution and sprints right up to him. “ _You’re_ Charlie?” she gasps, staring up at him with stars in her eyes. “Panda was saying so many cool things about you on the way over!” she runs around him in a circle. “You’re so much cooler in person!” she squeals, but before Charlie can get a word in she’s back over to Panda, tugging him by the paw towards Charlie.

“She’s awfully cute”, Charlie says, watching her as she runs around to explore the living room.

“Isn’t she?  She’s such a sweetheart” Panda’s smiling as he watches her explore too. “She couldn’t stop asking questions about you on the way over from the city. We almost missed our subway stop because she was talking over the announcement that we’d arrived”

Charlie blushes lightly. “Aww, pshh…” he scratches at the back of his head. “I’m not _that_ special”

That makes Panda snicker, and he stands on his tiptoes to give him a kiss on the cheek. “Funny,” he says. “We beg to differ”

There’s something about the way Panda says _we_ that makes Charlie perk up.

“Who is she, anyway?” Charlie asks. “She a kid of a friend of yours? Where are they? I didn’t know there were other bears that lived in the area. I’d love to meet ‘em”.

Panda snickers again. “There aren’t”

“Huh?” That just confuses Charlie even more. “Then who’s….”

Panda can’t stop smiling. “She was wandering the city all by herself. I didn’t even see her at first, she was that small. She approached me, as a matter of fact, and she was so…starstruck by me that she could barely speak. So, instead of saying anything at all, she just…shyly held up this little cardboard poster she’d made herself”

Panda hands Charlie a small piece of cardboard. It’s got _ADOPT ME PLEASE_ scribbled across it in a messy child’s handwriting, and Charlie drops the board in shock as he begins to piece things together.

Panda places a paw against Charlie’s back. “I know how much you love kids” he shakes his head. “And I know how great your experience with parenthood has been in the past, and I just…” Charlie watches as Panda bends to pick up the cardboard poster from the floor. “Saw so much of myself in her, that, well….”

Either the cub got bored of wandering around the living room or she’d been listening in on their conversation, because when Charlie glances down she’s standing at his feet and smiling up at him.

“Is-” Charlie stutters, suddenly finding that he’s lost the ability to form a proper sentence. “Did you-is she…” he kneels back down on the ground so he can get a better look at her. “Are you telling me this is _my-”_

“ _Our”_ Panda corrects him, placing a paw on Charlie’s shoulders. “Otherwise, yes. _Our_ daughter. I told her we’d be adopting her together.” He laughs. “It’s why she was so excited to meet you, Charlie. It’s why you’re so special to her”. Panda’s glance returns to the small cub. “She already met one parent, so she was thrilled beyond comprehension to meet the other”.

Charlie just about yanks Panda to the floor and into his arms, he’s that overwhelmingly happy. “Oh, Panda~” he exclaims, and brings the cub into the embrace before he covers first Panda, and then the cub, in sweet kisses. She’s squealing in delight, and Panda’s laughing so hard that he’s wheezing.  “I love yooou” Charlie singsongs, and returns to smothering Panda in kisses, lightly trapping his squealing daughter between them. “I love yooou~” he repeats, and Panda lightly presses a paw to Charlie’s head and weakly attempts to shove him away.

“Charlie!” he wheezes in protest. “Charlie, stop it!” he chokes on his own laughter. “Okay, okay” Panda exclaims, like he’s admitting defeat. “I love you too!”

“Thank you” Charlie grins, like those words were the key he needed to let go, and the cub giggles as she rolls out of Charlie’s lap and back onto the ground as Panda stands up.

“I’m going to rearrange a few things in my room so she has somewhere to sleep until we can find her a proper bed, okay?” Panda says, and disappears around the corner to his room. There’s a tiny tap at Charlie’s lap as soon as Panda’s gone, and when he glances down she’s gazing up at him with huge eyes.

“Up!”  She says, before he can ask her what she wants.

“Pardon?”

“Up!” she giggles, grabbing towards him. “Pick me up!”

Charlie would be lying to himself if he tried to deny the fact that he’s tearing up. “Oh! Of course” he says, and opens his arms for her. “C’mere”.

“Yay!” she exclaims, and launches herself at him. She wraps her tiny paws around him in a hug and leans her head against him, and it’s hard for Charlie not to laugh when she goes _wheeeee_ as he stands to his feet and gently adjusts her to prevent her from falling. “You’re so tall!” she says, squeezing him in an even tighter hug. “You’re the best thing I could’ve asked for”

“Funny,” he chokes. “I could say the same thing about you”

She beams widely just as Panda comes back in the room.

“Mm, I had less extra bedding than I thought, so I gave her a few of my plushies, and if she still feels uncomfortable she could always sleep with Miki-Chan” he says, but pauses when he sees Charlie holding her in his arms.

“I dunno, Pan-Pan” he sends a smile in her direction. “I think if she’s still uncomfortable she could always just climb in and sleep with us”

Panda smiles, and leans upwards to give Charlie a kiss.

“Hey, love birds!” Grizz’s voice suddenly teases from outside. “We’re home! I hope you’re decent, because we heard you talking about-” he cuts himself off, and when Charlie and Panda turn Grizz and Ice are staring wide-eyed at the cub practically falling asleep in Charlie’s arms.

“ _Oh my GOSH!”_ Grizz exclaims, rushing to Charlie. “They’re so cute!”

“She”, Panda and Charlie inform in unison.

“Ah! She’s so cute!” Grizz corrects himself, circling around Charlie so he can get a better look at her. “Who is she? Why’s Charlie holding her?”

Beside Charlie, Panda blushes.

“Well,” he says, rubbing at his arm. “Because she’s his”

“She’s _what?!”_ Grizz stops dead in his tracks, like that was the last thing he was expecting Panda to say.

“Well, yeah” he says, gesturing to Charlie. “I adopted her this morning. Look how much they already love each other” Panda gestures to Charlie, who’d started gently swaying the small cub back and forth in his arms.

“Woah, Pan-Pan” Grizz says, eyeballing the smile on the cub’s face as Charlie rocks her. “That’s a…huge step”

“Sudden, too” Ice Bear nods, and Panda frowns as he takes a step back to place a gentle paw on her head.

“I know. I know!” he sighs, and gestures for Charlie to hand her over. He complies, and as soon as the cub is transferred into his arms she clings to him in a hug like she’d just been doing to Charlie. “But please, don’t be mad at me, okay? She was wandering the street all by herself, and when she looked at me with these big, pleading eyes, I couldn’t see her at first”  he shakes his head as the cub momentarily pulls away from her hug to look at him with big, curious eyes. “All I could see was us. At least we had each other. She’s an only child.” Panda begins to pace back and forth, and the gentle motion must be starting to put her to sleep because the next thing Panda knows she’s closing her eyes and leaning her head against him. “We never got adopted. Nobody ever took us in. And I mean, yeah, I know we turned out fine, but I didn’t have it in my heart to let her go through that.” Panda holds her just a bit closer. “Not alone. I had to take her in”.

Panda glances up, and his brothers are in tears. They exchange a glance before they turn their gazes to her, and the cub’s eyes pop open when Grizz and Ice go in to hug Panda from both sides of him.

“Of course we’re not mad at you”

“Ice Bear welcomes new member of the family”

“New?” she pipes up, and glances between Grizz and Ice. “I have _uncles_???” she grins, and begins squealing in happiness again.

“Augh, my heart” Grizz says, bringing one paw to his chest and wiping a tear away with the other. “I love her” he says.  “Yes, I’m Uncle Grizz, and that there is Uncle Ice” he gestures to Ice Bear, who closes his eyes as a single tear treads down his cheek.

“Ice Bear has never seen a girl more beautiful”

“What’s her name? I need to go buy her, like, a million welcome home presents, and I want to get the right name on her tag”

Panda and Charlie exchange glances.

“How rude of me!” Charlie laughs, and crouches to her eye level where she remains in Panda’s arms. “I completely forgot to ask! What’s your name, pumpkin?”

“My name?” she repeats, shifting in Panda’s arms so she can see Charlie better. She taps at her chin with her tiny paw. “Huh. I can’t remember”

“You can’t?” Panda asks, and she shakes her head.

“Well, nobody’s ever really bothered to ask me, because nobody’s offered to take me home, so I guess I just didn’t think it was very important to remember” she shrugs, and Panda and Charlie exchange frowns.

“Well,” Charlie says. “Then that settles it. From this day forth, we’ll call you Pumpkin, because that’s what you’ll always be to us” he beams, winding an arm around Panda. “Our sweet little pumpkin”.

Pumpkin beams, grinning from ear to ear, and reaches out for Charlie again. As soon as Panda hands her over she’s clinging to him again, and it’s not long before Panda joins in on it, throwing his own arms around Charlie and their daughter. 


End file.
